Halibut fishing

Early Saturday morning, Sinkey picked up Kristen and me and drove us out to George Inlet lodge. We loaded up his boat with fishing supplies and started the 18 miles towards Point Alva. It was raining along the way, but Sinkey said he could tell by the weather patterns that it would be a sunny day for us. Once we got to Point Alva we dropped our anchor at 300 ft. Sure enough the rain stopped and the clouds started to clear. We each grabbed a fishing pole, dropped the line to the ocean floor, and began the wait for a bite. We caught 5 halibut (weighing between 15 - 20 lbs), 1 cod, 3 sharks, and a rat fish. Kristen and I alternated turns reeling in the fish and it is tough work reeling in halibut (they don't put up as much of a fight as King salmon, but still resist quite a bit). After about 7 hours of fishing we decided to call it a day and rode the hour back to the lodge. Sinkey filleted all of the fish (not including the 3 sharks and rat fish that we threw back) and vacuum sealed it all. Time to ship a box home to my lucky parents!

Crab pots

On Sunday, Dave took Kristen and me out on his boat to drop some crab pots. It was an overcast day and not too chilly, so a good day to spend on the water. While we were dropping the pots a humpback whale swam by. It flipped up its tale about 100 feet from our boat. I can never grow tired of seeing whales! Once we returned to shore, Kristen and I went to yoga. I was glad to return to class and look forward to Sunday night yoga classes throughout the rest of the season.

Work let out early on Tuesday so Kristen and I decided to hike deer mountain. We had some nice views up until the peak. However, when we reached the top some clouds rolled through and blocked our view. It was still a nice hike (great workout) and fun to spend the afternoon outdoors.

Yesterday, Dave took Kristen and me out on the boat to retrieve our crab pots. We caught about 15 dungeness crabs, but were only allowed to keep 6. Out of state residents with fishing licenses can only have 3 crabs in their possession at a time. Dave and I were the only 2 with licenses so we picked the 6 largest crabs and threw the rest back. On the ride back to shore we rode by a rock covered with sea lions (around 30 sea lions). Some of them slipped into the water as we rode by, but most just looked at us suspiciously. We then headed back to my apartment and had a huge crab boil. We also fried some halibut that Dave caught. Life is good.

Kristen has moved to town!

The past couple of weeks have been very busy with many changes. As we're nearing the end of the season, people have started to leave (Paul left). However, some people have just moved here as well. My good friend, Kristen, moved out here last week and is working as a dock rep with us. It's so much fun having her here!

Last weekend we had a company event. We rented out an Allen Marine boat and rode it out to Carroll Inlet. Even though it was a rainy day we made the best of it. As soon as we left the dock, we all went to the open deck on top of the boat and had a dance party (there were about 80 people on board). We all got soaking wet, but we had so much fun! Carroll Inlet looked so beautiful in the rainy weather.

Yesterday afternoon, Dave (Paul's best friend) had a BBQ at his house. He had just caught some fish (similar to trout) at Ward lake. We stuffed them with onions, jalapenos peppers, garlic, basil, and lemon juice and threw them on the grill. Dave also made red beans and rice to accompany the fish. It was a delicious meal. I will never get tired of eating fresh fish every day!

I have the day off today and plan on relaxing. Its overcast outside and is supposed to rain so I don't feel super guilty for not taking full advantage of the outdoors today.